The present invention relates to methods and devices for controlling access to data, and more particularly to a method and device for preventing unauthorized access to data on a hard drive, regardless of the system in which the hard drive is installed and the password protection available in the system.
As is known, stored data on a data storage device may be protected from unauthorized access in various ways. For example, an operating system program resident in a system in which the data storage device installed may provide password protection. (The term "password" refers to a sequence of characters in a defined format that is desirably kept secret and used for controlling access to data.) Password protection programs prompt a would-be user to provide a password and deny access unless the user enters a password which matches a predetermined password located in non-volatile memory in the system (i.e., a storage medium which does not lose its contents when system power is removed, such as C-MOS, flash memory, and hard disks). However, these methods are easily bypassed by erasing the non-volatile memory and thus the password protection (e.g., clearing the C-MOS memory by removing the associated battery) or by simply removing the data storage device (e.g., hard drive, floppy disk, PCMCIA memory card, etc.) from the password protected system and installing the data storage device in a non-password protected system.
This problem has been exacerbated by recent technology advances. Data storage devices have become smaller and more easily moved from one system to the next, and many laptop and notebook computers use standard data storage devices, such as Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE) hard drives, that are purposely engineered to be easily moved from one laptop or notebook computer to the next. It is clearly desirable to provide protection for data stored on a removable data storage device that is independent of the system in which it is installed. It would be a further advantage to be able to use existing technology with only slight modifications to preserve the investments made therein.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel device and method for controlling access to data stored on a removable data storage device which obviates the problems of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel device and method for protecting data on a data storage device in which protection is afforded when a password is detected at a predetermined location on a storage medium in the data storage device.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel device and method for controlling access to data on a hard drive capable of being used in any of plural systems without regard to the access protection afforded by the system to which the hard drive is connected.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of selectively protecting data on a storage medium in a data reader that is in a system in which the data reader compares a password from the system to a password stored on the storage medium (and which is accessible only from the data reader) and generates an enabling signal for allowing access to the storage medium if the passwords are the same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method of selectively protecting data on a storage medium in a data reader in a system in which a password stored in the system device is automatically provided to the data reader for comparison to a first password stored in the storage medium after access to the data on the hard drive has been denied.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.